Blockbuster Declares Bankruptcy

Call it a commentary on the retail rental model, changes in end user preferences or simply the rise of online and other forms of distribution, but Blockbuster, to almost nobody's surprise, has declared bankruptcy.

ABC And Nielsen Partner On iPad App That ‘Syncs’ TV And Mobile Viewing

The ABC Television Group and The Nielsen Company have developed an iPad app for one of the network’s new primetime dramas in hopes of seeing how much of a connection there is between iPad viewing and regular TV watching.

The app is built on Nielsen’s Media-Sync Platform, which allows mobile apps to automatically detect and synchronize with TV programming using audio watermarks. That means users can watch, leave and come back again right where they left off.

The free My Generation Sync iPad app was available in iTunes’ App Store. In addition to promoting the show, "My Generation," the app also is also designed to help draw interest to Apple’s new $0.99 “TV show rental” offer with Apple.

ABC And Nielsen Partner On iPad App That ‘Syncs’ TV And Mobile Viewing

How To Watch Movies And TV Online For Free

If you watch much television online, Googling around for it quickly becomes a drag. Clicker is a great one-stop shop for finding this content. It's legal content.

How To Watch Movies And TV Online For Free

Half of Internet Users Watch Online Video

About 50 percent of all online uses now report they watch online video at least weekly, up from 43 percent  in 2009, according to Frank N. Magid Associates.

About 85 percent of males 18-24 watch online video weekly or more and 67 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34. That should grow about five percent more over the next year. Short form content continues to represent about 80 percent of content viewed.

About 76 percent of online video consumers report they watch professionally produced clips on a regular basis.

About 38 percent say they are interested in watching PC-delivered content on a TV screen.

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Online Video Consumption Catches Broadcast by 2020

By 2020 Internet video consumption will eclipse the consumption of broadcast TV programming, according to researchers at The Diffusion Group. Keep in mind that this is different from arguing the revenue earned by content or service providers will reach a cross-over point in 2020.

While the amount of time spent viewing TV has remained relatively stable, the amount of time consumers spent watching online video increased 84 percent between 2008 and 2009. When extrapolated across the entire TV-viewing population, the average time spent viewing online video in 2009 was 52 percent more than in 2008.

TDG expects that this rate of growth will actually increase during the next five to seven years due primarily to the increased use of the television as the platform of choice for in-home web video viewing.

According to Colin Dixon, senior partner and co-author of TDG’s new report, “The total amount of time spent watching video from all sources, including PayTV and Internet video, will hold constant during the next 10 years at around 32 hours a week. With online video usage accelerating we expect the amount of Internet video watched to eclipse the amount of live broadcast TV around 2020.”

The forecast may appear shocking to some, and will hinge on developments in broadband access pricing, bandwidth quality and deployment, both fixed and wireless. Wireless providers are unlikely to permit high video consumption on their networks without creation of new revenue models or a change in end user willingness to pay.

Fixed providers and content providers are unlikely to encourage online video consumption when it simply cannibalizes existing multi-channel video revenue and imposes higher network access costs.

“Keep in mind that during this period, Internet and broadcast delivery of video content will become blended in such a way that consumers will be unaware of which conduit serves which content," says Colin Dixon, TDG senior partner.

It is conceivable that today's multi-channel video providers, for example, will be able to shift in a relatively revenue-neutral way if "TV Everywhere" packages are accepted by end users on a wide scale. That doesn't speak to the issues of access providers who have to support the dramatically-increased infrastructure, though.

One suspects the revenue equivalent of this forecast would not show cross over in 2020 for a variety of compelling reasons, including a more-uncertain regulatory environment leading to less investor interest in access infrastructure, need to develop new business models and possible disincentives to consume online video, such as plan overages.

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Consumption of Long-Form Video Grows Faster than Short-Form Content

It isn't yet clear whether long-form video or short-form video poses the bigger demand on mobile and fixed access networks. But both are increasing.

The number of US online video viewers has risen steadily for the past few years and is expected to continue climbing in moderate increments through 2014, according to eMarketer, which suggests that growth will slow from between eight percent and nine percent a year from 2010 through 2012 to about 5.2 percent in 2014, when 77 percent of US Internet users will be watching online video content at least monthly.

Growth in online video viewership was increasing more quickly between 2008 and 2009, by 11.3 percent.

But streaming and downloading of full-length movies increased much more dramatically. According to Ipsos OTX, the percentage of Web users who watched long-form online video more than doubled between September 2008 and Oct 2009.

Such rapid increases in downloading and streaming mean full-length movie—and, by likely extension, TV—content is on a faster growth track than online video viewing as a whole, eMarketer says.

One factor behind the turn toward long-form content is the success of Hulu, which The Nielsen Company ranked second to YouTube in overall video streams viewed in April 2010. But Internet-connected devices in use also will play a part.

In-Stat expects U.S. shipments of Web-enabled devices that support TV applications will increase from 14.6 million this year to 83.4 million by 2014.

The demographics of online video viewing also help to explain why Internet users have gone beyond snack-size clips to adopt full-length TV and movie viewing on the Web. The highest penetration of online video viewing is among users 18 to 24, with 25- to 34-year-olds and teens not far behind. By the middle of this decade, those age groups will be at saturation points of above 90 percent penetration for video consumption.

Not only do these demographics watch online video in massive numbers, but they are also the most receptive to TV content online. Retrevo found that 29 percent of under-25s get all or most of their TV online, compared with eight percent of the video viewing population as a whole.

“If the first iteration of online video was about silly pet tricks on YouTube, the next wave will be about professionally produced full-length content such as TV shows, movies and live sports,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.

Netflix Outlines How it Will Become a Streaming Video Provider

Netflix was supposed to be "toast" as the world shifted from DVD rental to online viewing of movie content. But Netflix always knew that would happen, and has remained in front of the transition in a way few firms ever do.

Netflix has introduced a $7.99 streaming-only subscription plan in the United States for the first time. The plan, which allows members to instantly watch unlimited movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix to TVs and computers, is available now to both new and existing members.

The company also announced that the price of its popular subscription combining unlimited movies and TV shows streamed instantly over the Internet and unlimited DVDs delivered quickly by mail, with one DVD out at a time, will increase by a dollar a month to $9.99. Prices of subscription plans allowing for more DVDs out at a time will also increase.

U.S. Users Watched 30.3 Billion Videos in April 2010

U.S. Internet users watched 30.3 billion videos in April, with Google Sites ranking as the top video property with 13.1 billion videos, representing 43.2 percent of all videos viewed online.

YouTube accounted for the vast majority of videos viewed at the property. Hulu ranked second with 958 million videos, or 3.2 percent of all online videos viewed. Microsoft Sites ranked third with 644 million (2.1 percent), followed by Viacom Digital with 384 million (1.3 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 371 million (1.2 percent).

Some 178 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. Recently launched in December 2009, Vevo (which includes viewing from the Vevo channel on YouTube) attracted 43.6 million viewers in April, representing a quarter of the U.S. online video audience.

comScore Releases April 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings - comScore, Inc

BBC Looks To Ban Over the Top Use of Its Content

The BBC, saying it seeks to maintain its brand, says it does not want to make its programs available to third parties for VOD distribution on an unbundled basis. In part, that is one more example of how the debate over content pay walls is being played out, and also an example of the broader ways in which the battle between open and closed ecosystems likewise has heated up.

BBC Looks To Ban Third-Party iPlayer Builds | paidContent:

Bandwidth Implications of Online Video

It remains to be seen whether more use of Internet delivery for today's video entertainment programming is a good thing for access providers, whatever it may mean for other contributors to the video ecosystem.

The reason is the sheer cost impact of supplying enough bandwidth to support even a part of today's viewing requirements.

Video, in fact, is the chief reason there is a growing gap between ISP revenue from providing access services and the revenue that can be earned by providing such access (click image for larger view).

To be sure, multiple approaches will be taken to better match demand and supply. Price increases, retail price plans better tailored to actual consumption, wireless offload to fixed networks, signal compression and other efforts are likely.

Best Buy Launches Video Service

Best Buy Co. has launched a new digital video service, called "CinemaNow,"  that will provide customers same-day access to new release movies and TV shows available on DVD.

The service will initially be accessible through select connected LG Electronics Blu-ray Disc players and HDTVs, and on most PCs at www.cinemanow.com. Samsung's Internet-connected home theater equipment and Insignia brands also will have the feature.

CinemaNow is also expected to launch on an array of other devices from various manufacturers, including Insignia, later this year.

The first update to the CinemaNow service is expected to release on select devices later this year and will include an advanced user interface and expanded video playback features aimed at further improving the video entertainment experience.

CinemaNow will have "first run" movies for sale as soon as they arrive on DVD, with rentals for $2.99  to $3.99 per movie and purchases at $9.99 to $19.99, including HD titles and some available in 1080p.

The company will be competing against other retail giants such as Walmart and Blockbuster, as well as Netflix and Hulu, among others.

There will be other changes as well, It might now happen for a couple year, but Best Buy has said it will phase out DVD sales as early as 2012.

http://www.bby.com/2010/05/18/best-buy-provides-customers-same-day-instant-access-to-new-release-movies-and-tv-shows-with-launch-of-cinemanow/

Broadcasters Are Serving Up Lots of Web Video

Aside from YouTube, online video offered by broadcast TV networks and Web-only media brands, followed by magazine sites and music labels, seem to be getting the most traffic, a new study by Brightcove and Tubemogul suggests.

About 51.75 percent of viewers are navigating to video directly from the publisher’s main site. Google search drives 39 percent of viewing,  followed by Yahoo at 5.58 percent, Bing at two  percent and Facebook at 0.40 percent.

In the first quarter of 2010, the broadcast TV networks sampled in the study streamed 380 million videos, with Web media brands coming up close behind at 326 million video streams. However, the native Web brands, which include both video-only and general entertainment and news sites, saw 300 percent annual growth of video views in the first quarter, compared to 44 percent growth for the broadcast sites.

For all of 2009, Web media sites grew twice as fast as broadcast TV sites (165 percent compared to 74 percent). At this rate, they will overtake the broadcast sites in video views later this year, the study suggests.

In the first quarter of 2010, magazine-affiliated sites streamed 190 million videos, up 90 percent. In fact, magazine sites are streaming as many videos as music label sites, which came in at 191 million videos, up 60 percent.

Newspaper sites aren’t doing nearly so well, streaming 136 million videos in the quarter and growing five percent.  Newspaper sites are trying to catch up, though, and had two billion video player pageloads in the quarter (pages which loaded with a video player, but were not necessarily clicked on), compared to 1.2 billion for magazine sites, 760 million for Web-only media, and 670 million for broadcast TV sites.

But newspaper sites are having a real problem getting their audiences to watch videos, the study suggests.

For every two billion videos they throw in front of users, only 136 million get viewed (6.8 percent). Broadcast TV sites are getting 380 million views for every 670 million attempts (56.7 percent).
Even magazine sites are seeing a 12.7 percent hit rate.

But newspaper videos get viewed "to the end" more frequently than videos on other sites. The completion rates for videos on newspaper sites are 41 percent, versus 39 percent for magazine sites, 38 percent for broadcast sites, and 29 percent for music label sites.

"More" TV Seems to be the Story

U.S. consumers seem to be buying more TVs even as they watch more online video. "More," not "either, or" seems to be the story.

YouTube to Launch Movie Rental Store

YouTube, the Google-owned video sharing site that claims to serve an average 96 videos per person to 135 million viewers each month, is building an automated system that will let movie makers upload full-length movies to the site’s recently launched video rental store.

Some observers think that feature might be most valuable for filmmakers unable to get much distribution from other outlets, especially independent filmmakers who cannot gain distribution on Netflix or Amazon, for example.

The service “will give moviemakers the ability to upload and provide their streaming content for rent,” MediaPost writer Laurie Sullivan says. Rental movies will be available in 1080-pixel resolution, much higher than the TV and movie streams on Hulu. Payments will be made through Google Checkout, a Paypal-like service.

The Future of TV Is... TV

"The potential for video over the internet is huge, and always will be," says Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner and technology investor. That isn't a new argument: Cuban has made the argument repeatedly and forcefully.

"The future of TV is TV," he says. "That is what consumers want." Arguing that forecasters need only follow the money, he notes that consumers have made their choice to spend money on new HDTVs because they want a no-hassle way to watch TV, and do not want all the hassles associated with PC-based or Internet-delivered video.

"I don’t understand why so many people think that having millions of videos available online to watch any time is some big deal," Cuban says. "Consumer choice is about having the brand new device on which you just spent hundreds of dollars or more work immediately and just as you expected.

"When you buy a car, you don’t want to have to figure out how to make it work. You don’t want to have to bring someone in to make sure the engine starts, or have to buy some 3rd party device so that you can go full speed or blast the stereo. When you buy that car, you want to jump in the driver's seat, smell that new car smell, be excited when you turn it on, and crank that stereo and roll down the road in your brand new car. You made your choice as a consumer. You spent your money. You want immediate gratification.

The Future of TV Is... TV -- Seeking Alpha:

All Video Over the Top in 10 Years?

"The reality is that within the decade, the Internet will become the vehicle for distribution of all digital content, including the video and TV services currently still delivered within the walled garden of proprietary distribution networks, mostly satellite and cable," says Philip Hunter over at BroadbandBreakfast.com. 

The physical network may still be cable or satellite, but it will be an IP-based infrastructure, with the content arriving “over the top” rather than within a walled garden, he argues.  Access to the service will continue to be controlled. However, content providers now will be in direct contact with the end customer, in effect cutting out the broadcast distributor.

"Current TV operators will either morph into Internet service providers, which many are already anyway, or into content providers in their own right," he argues.

BroadbandBreakfast.com: ISPs Struggle to Deliver Video Traffic While Imposing Bandwidth Caps

Remember When Netflix Was "Toast"?

Remember when Netflix was supposed to be "toast"? You remember the arguments: Physical media was
out, online was in; Netflix was wedded to a dying business model. Online distribution, by YouTube or
Hulu, was going to destroy Netflix.

That hasn't happened. Quite to the contrary, investors have bid up Netflix's stock by nearly 100 percent
since January 2010, in part because Netflix shows every sign of being a contender in online video. And now Hulu has announced a "paid" access model that puts it in head-to-head competition with Netflix to some extent.

True, Netflix often is thought of as primarily offering movie fare, while Hulu's content leans heavily towards TV shows.

Netflix has 14 million paying subscribers, while Hulu has about 40 million unique viewers, but so far zero paid subscribers. And that is the test for Hulu. Most observers think perhaps five percent to 10 percent of Hulu users might choose to buy the new paid service, suggesting a potential base of two million to four million paid subscribers.

If one assumes four million subscribers, at a monthly fee of $10, that implies $480 million worth of annual revenue. That's interesting, but not terribly interesting.

Small Cable Operators Think Dumb Pipe Might be a Better Business Model

Not every cable operator thinks over-the-top video is a worse business model than providing cable TV. In fact, some believe providing what might be wholesale services to third parties might actually provide better profit margins than cable TV now does.

"Our video margins are going down year after year," said Colleen Abdullah, the CEO of WideOpenWest Holdings.

Wave Broadband COO Steve Friedman also agreed that the profits from an over-the-top model might be better than the current cable TV business, especially if the new model simply substituted a bandwidth usage model for the current monthly subscription model.

While the dumb pipe model may in fact be better for small operators, that probably is not the case for larger providers.

Probably the worst of all possible outcomes is over-the-top competition from firms such as Comcast, where Comcast sells the video content directly to broadband users, and the local cable modem provider is not able to charge for the additional bandwidth consumed. That is one reason why the dumb pipe model would not work unless some form of consumption-based charging were adopted.

"Over-the-top video will eventually emerge as a challenge to the current model of large, expensive bundles of programming," said Blair Levin, the executive director of the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative. Levin thinks such a move is "inevitable."

The basic tradeoff is that cable operators would essentially trade current linear video subscription revenue for higher broadband access revenues. That essentially was the business decision Qwest Communications made years ago, when it concluded it was better off outsourcing linear entertainment to DirecTV, and building its optical access infrastructure in a way that ultimately is conducive for over-the-top or on-demand video.

"The final inevitability is mobile broadband," said Levin. "We know it's coming. We know it's going to be very, very big."

"In 1994, you could envision as inevitable the Internet replacing existing platforms for communications and entertainment," Levin said. "And based on numerous metrics, that transformation is well underway."

Levin also warned that consumer anger over the cost of cable TV now reminds him of similar sentiment leading up to the 1992 cable act, and that there will likely be "some kind of response, either from the market or from the government," to address those concerns.

Any such move would further limit the upside from linear video and likely propel more movement towards an over-the-top approach.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=190749&site=lr_cable&f_src=lightreading_gnews

CBS Gets Ready for iPad

If a video content provider reauthors its content to run using HTML5 instead of Flash, what does that mean? That the content is intended to run on Apple's iPad. And that is what CBS.com appears to be doing.

None of this means the multi-channel video entertainment business is in trouble, by any means. But it is likely to be a step towards a future where that is a serious question.

related story

TV Everywhere Will Stall Growth of Online Video, One Can Argue

Some observers, not without reason, predict the days of linear multi-channel video are numbered. But that possible transition is likely to take much longer than most expect, in part because incumbents still have weapons at their disposal, including the $32 billion in fees cable operators alone pay to programmers every year.

"TV Everywhere," will allow online viewers to watch shows for no incremental charge, if they're cable subscribers. If programmers go along with the concept, there is almost no way a sizable alternative channel will open up, at least for network fare.

Cable industry executives hope the plan will indeed deflect the online video threat. At least so far, content owners seem unwilling to abandon their long-standing distribution agreements with cable operators. And so long as cable and other distributors remain so key to profits in the broader video ecosystem, no challengers are likely to succeed.

full story here